In 1994, The Magic School Bus concept was made into an animated series of the same name by Scholastic Entertainment and it premiered on September 10, 1994. The idea for the show was thought up by former Scholastic Entertainment Vice President and Senior Editorial Director Craig Walker. Scholastic Entertainment president Deborah Forte said that adapting the books into an animated series was an opportunity to help kids "learn about science in a fun way".[3] Around that time, Forte had been hearing concerns from parents and teachers about how to improve science education for girls and minorities across the globe.[3] Each episode of the series ran for 30 minutes. Hanho Heung-Up Co., Ltd. contributed some of the animation for this series.

When The Magic School Bus was syndicated on commercial networks, the Producer Says segment at the end of each episode was cut out to make space for commercials. The Producer Says segments were only seen when the series was shown on non-commercial networks, international networks, VHS, and DVD releases. Within the episodes, there were also time points where the episode fades out and then fades back in after a series of commercials are shown. On non-commercial networks, VHS, and DVD releases the scene immediately fades back in right after it fades out as no commercials are shown.

The show's theme song called "Ride on the Magic School Bus" was written by Peter Lurye and performed by rock 'n' roll legend Little Richard.[4]

In the United States, The Magic School Bus originally aired on PBS as a part of its children's block, PTV, through South Carolina's SCETV network; it was the first fully animated series to be aired on PBS. The last episode aired on December 6, 1997 ; the series then aired reruns on PBS until 1998. Fox Kids Network, in a hasty effort to fill educational television mandates for its stations, aired repeats on its weekday block from 1998 to 2002. Starting September 27, 2010, The Magic School Bus started a daily run on Qubo in the US, and on Saturday mornings on NBC. The Fox Kids and Qubo airings both used a shortened version of the opening. Based on information from their website, Qubo no longer carries The Magic School Bus in their programming lineup.

The Magic School Bus was also seen on TLC from February 15, 2003 until 2008, and aired on the Ready Set Learn block on Discovery Kids from 2004 to 2009,[3]TVOntario, [3]Disney Junior Canada, and the Knowledge Network in Canada and Pop, Channel 4 and CITV in the United Kingdom, with no plans to make more episodes. The series was widely known in Canada for showing reruns on CBC as part of its children's block, now known as Kids' CBC, from 2008 to 2013. In 2014, Nelvana sold the series to Latin America's Cartoon Network.[6] Child-oriented network Qubo showed episodes between 2010 and 2012. In Canada, it ran on Teletoon from 1998 until 2000, and has run on TVO Kids from 1998 until the present time. It was presented internationally by Discovery Kids from 2004 to 2009, and in the UK, Latin America, Australia, Spain, and India by Nickelodeon from 1995 to 2003. It was also shown in the UK by Pop from 2003 to 2007. It aired for some time on Channel 4 from 1996 to 2000. It also aired on CITV from 1995 to 2002. Other airers have included TV Tokyo (1997 to 1999), Kindernet (2003 to 2007), EBS of South Korea (1995 to 1999), Boomerang (Latin America, 2001 - 2008), The Den (Ireland) from 1995 to 2000 and Channel 6 (Israel), , and has run on TVO Kids from 2007 until the present time.

The series was originally released on VHS by KidVision (a division of WarnerVision Entertainment) between 1995 and 2003, and on DVD by Warner Home Video (through Warner Bros. Family Entertainment and WarnerVision Entertainment) and between 2002 and 2013. Only the DVDs contain the funding credits. In the home video releases, all the episodes are uncut and un-edited with the Producer Says segments intact. In the UK, it was broadcast until mid-2007 when it was removed off the air on Pop channel.

On July 31, 2012, New Video Group released the complete series on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time.[7]

On August 15, 2013, Scholastic announced the entire series would be available on Netflix.[8]

Jason Fry, in a column for the online edition of The Wall Street Journal, expressed an overall appreciation for the show, but wrote that the episode "The Magic School Bus Gets Programmed" should have been about the perils of Internet searches and network concepts surfacing at the time, rather than an old-fashioned technology-run-amok story about the respective roles of programmer and machine (although he conceded that the episode was ten years old).[9]

Various computer and video games associated with the series were released from 1994 to 2000, and were typically amalgamations of storylines from both the original book series and the television show. The games were published by Microsoft Home.

A video game titled The Magic School Bus: Oceans was released for Nintendo DS on October 25, 2011, ten years after the release of the last game. The video game, similar to the computer game before it, was likely based on the book, The Magic School Bus On the Ocean Floor and the TV episode, The Magic School Bus Gets Eaten. This is the only game to have been released for the Nintendo platform.

On June 10, 2014, a new series was announced by Netflix and Scholastic Media titled The Magic School Bus 360°.[11][12] The new iteration of the franchise features a modernized Ms. Frizzle and high-tech bus that stresses modern inventions such as robotics, wearables and camera technology. The producers hoped to captivate children's imaginations and motivate their interest in the sciences.[13][14]9 Story Media Group would produce the series.[15] Producer Stuart Stone, who voiced Ralphie in the original series, stated that The Magic School Bus 360° will feature some of the original voice actors in different roles. The show's voice cast is based in Los Angeles, California, United States and Toronto, Ontario, Canada with Susan Blu as the Los Angeles voice director and Alyson Court as the Toronto voice director.[16]

In February 2017, Netflix announced that Kate McKinnon was cast in the role of Fiona Felicity Frizzle, the younger sister of Ms. Frizzle, now Professor Frizzle, again played by Lily Tomlin. By this point the title of the series had been changed to The Magic School Bus Rides Again.[17]Lin-Manuel Miranda of Hamilton performs the theme song.[18] The series was released on Netflix on September 29, 2017.[19]